Have a look at this picture. It’s an eagle attacking a flightless bird called a moa. Now imagine that a six-foot tall human being barely comes up to the base of the Moa’s neck and you’ll get some idea of just how phenomenal the Haast’s Eagle truly was. This isn’t a Tweety that’s scared of Sylvester. It’s a Tweety that rips out Sylvesters throat and devours him piece by bloody piece.

Despite the coin series being named ‘Prehistoric Animals’, this death from the skies only went extinct around 600 years ago from it’s native New Zealand because the Maori stuck the Moa in the cooking pot. It just goes to prove that greed and stupidity aren’t confined to modern human history. We’ve been dumb and short-sighted for ages.

The coin itself is the second in the series, following on from the Smilodon, a huge saber-toothed cat. Ironically, that would’ve been the Sylvester to put the Haasts Eagle back in it’s place but it went extinct millenia before and thousands of miles away. Like the Smilodon release, the coin is limited to just a thousand pieces. It’s issued for Gabon, a first for Numiscollect, and unlike the first coin in the series that was issued for the Ivory Coast. Numiscollect make some nice coins and this series ranks amongst those. It’s a pity that they don’t go all in and make a 45mm, one-ounce, 0.999 silver version rather than this smaller 20g of 0.925 effort, but it’s nice regardless. Doesn’t quite show the sheer scale of this six-foot high bird, but it’s attractive and likely well-struck with quite a cool obverse. Available soon.

EAGLE HARPAGORNIS MOOREI

This coin is part of series PREHISTORIC WILDLIFE
Haast’s Eagle (Harpagornis moorei) is an extinct species of eagle that once lived on the South Island of New Zealand, commonly accepted to be the Pouakai of Maori legend.[1] The species was the largest eagle known to have existed. Its prey is suspected to consist of moa. This eagle’s massive size may have been an evolutionary response to the size of its prey, as both would have been much smaller when they first came to the island, and would have grown larger over time due to lack of competition (see island gigantism). Haast’s Eagle became extinct around the year 1400, when its major food source, the moa, were hunted to virtual extinction by Maori, and much of its dense-forest habitat was cleared.

Key Selling Points:
Animals from the past everyone knows
Colorful design
Low mintage
Interesting country of issue

http://agaunews.com/new-release-kiwi-death-from-above-hits-silver/